COURTHOUSE EMPLOYEES PUT GIVING ON HOLIDAY DOCKET

Monica Fountain, Tribune Staff WriterCHICAGO TRIBUNE

A child crying is what started it all six years ago.

Melvin Brown, a probation officer at Domestic Violence Court at 13th Street and Michigan Avenue, said the 3-year-old child's wails filled the first floor of the circuit courthouse. Women and children packed into a visitors' room, waiting to see a judge to get orders of protection against abusive boyfriends and husbands.

The women were often scared and the children irritable and hungry, Brown said. Some had fled their homes with only the clothes on their backs, no place to go and no food for their children.

"I said I've got to do something for this baby," Brown recalled. He ran up the stairs to the second-floor vending machine and bought $2 worth of potato chips.

"I've been at it ever since," Brown said.

That gift of potato chips in 1989 grew into Brown founding the Concerned County Employees for Victims of Domestic Violence later that year.

Since then, the organization has collected about 500 toys for children of abused and battered women in homeless shelters.

Each year the group spends months collecting toys, hats, gloves and scarves to give to children at annual Christmas parties.

This fall, the group raised $8,000 at a fashion show in which Circuit Court Clerk Aurelia Pucinski was one of the models.

The group had intended to use the funds to buy a refrigerator for the crowded waiting room and stock it with juice and other nutritious snacks for the children.

But when they went to buy the refrigerator, the Aronson Furniture store offered it to them free, Brown said. So the group used the money to buy more toys.

The group includes employees of Domestic Violence Court from judges to custodians. During the year about 20 workers provide clothing, food and extra help at shelters after they finish work at the courthouse. But during the holidays, the group's numbers swell to about 100, Brown said.

Brown, 48, who has been at the court for nine years and a probation officer 22 years, said the numbers of women who seek protection from the court system has tripled in recent years.

After a long holiday weekend, the waiting room is standing-room only. The wait for an order of protection can be up to five hours.

On a recent afternoon, about 25 people sat in the crowded area waiting to talk to court workers or fill out police reports. Some carried crutches. Others had bandaged limbs and blackened eyes. Whether they show signs of physical abuse or not, most who make their way to the building at 13th Street and Michigan Avenue have emotional scars, Brown said.

Last year about 300 children attended the annual Christmas party. This year, on the Friday before Christmas, only those from one of the four shelters invited had shown up. But those attending were grateful for the attention.

"This is really beautiful," said Yvonne Reese, director of House of Hope Shelter on Chicago's South Side. "This needs to be not just at Christmas. We need to do this every day to get our families off the streets."